Speeding up to slow down to speed up

Mel, Do you ever have days where you do nothing but sit at your computer and answer emails, and at the end of the day you're completely exhausted and you still don't feel like you got anything done? In my early days as a salesman, somebody told me, "Massive action solves every problem." That has to be one of the worst pieces of advice I ever got from anyone. Did you know that it's possible to be productive without being frantic and rushed all the time? Lots o' people are celebrating the US 4th of July by taking today off. Today is the perfect day to slow down for a minute and see how you can get more done with LESS effort and less stress. A few weeks ago I did an interview with RC Peck about the "Critter Brain" or "Lizard Brain." It's the part of our brain that hijacks our best intentions when we most need to be strategic and deliberate. The lizard brain takes over and we do stupid stuff. RC said, "The way to speed up is to slow down. Rarely is a rush of frantic activity helpful." If you're a spontaneous person like me it's hard to slow down and really think. I don't know about you, but I get excited about new things and generate a whirlwind of activity. A lot of energy gets wasted. TIP #1: The worst place to get REAL thinking done is with your hands on your keyboard. The best place to think is in your favorite quiet spot with a pad of yellow notebook paper. TIP #2: Get up and go for a walk. Physical motion switches your brain on. I guarantee you, you will have more thoughts, better thoughts, more creative thoughts when your body is active than when your butt's on a chair. If you play a sport, run, ride your bike or play music, that's even better. When I put on my shoes and head for the door, I say "Time to go give my head a shake" and my family knows exactly what I'm talking about. I go for walks even when it's freezing cold outside. It stimulates my brain. TIP #3: Learn to recognize when you're stuck in reactive mode. If you can't get your mind to focus and all you seem to be able to do is react to emails and click on things and surf, it's a good sign you need to bleed off some excess energy. Yes, there are times when you just need to answer emails and phone calls and take care of miscellaneous things. Much better to do that stuff within a deliberate time slot instead of all the time. My formula is: Speed up to slow down to speed up. Which means: Stop the frantic activity and plan your work. Plan your work by physically speeding up (a brisk walk or run gets your juices flowing) then (slow down) write down your plan on your strategic yellow pad of paper. You'll speed up getting more done. You're an entrepreneur, which means the world does YOUR bidding. YOU are the person who organizes resources and moves things from low value to high value. You don't just sit there and let your day get nibbled to death by a thousand mosquitoes. There has never been a time when one person could accomplish so much in so little time. But you need to run the world, not let the world run you. If today is a day when the phones aren't ringing and people aren't demanding your time, then it's the perfect day to go for a walk, figure out what you want to accomplish in the next weeks and months, map out your plan and EXECUTE. Seize the day - and start by going outside and getting a breath of fresh air - right now. Perry Marshall Your stories & comments are invited at http://www.perrymarshall.com/speeding-up/ ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com

 

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Perry S. Marshall & Assoc
159 N. Marion Street #295
Oak Park, Illinois 60301
United States
(312) 386-7459

Which Brain Are You Using Today?

Liberation Seminar Participate in Day 1 No Charge with Your MM12 Membership Get the Details Here     Mel,   In The 80/20 Manager, Richard Koch tells the  story of a Prussian army commander and his unique method for utilizing his officers, according to their intelligence and their work ethic... 1. Officers who are both lazy and stupid - leave them alone, they do no harm. 2. Officers who are both hardworking and stupid- fire them at once, they create trivial work for everyone else. 3. Officers who are both hardworking and intelligent- useful for administrating and executing plans. 4. Officers who are both lazy and intelligent - promote them to the highest ranks. They will have the best ideas and will see how to implement them without creating trivial work for everyone else.   Great advice for managing your staff. But also great advice for managing your own brains. I believe that I have two brains.   One brain is an intelligent and hardworking officer. Let's call it my rational mind. It kicks in when I'm working very hard.   It's dualistic. It's black and white. It makes snap judgements. It "disqualifies" and ignores as much sensory input that it possibly can in order to keep me focused on the (often trivial) daily tasks that I've set before it. It loves routine. It loves logic. It loves order. When I have many routine, daily tasks to get through, it serves me well. It is a trusty little, inside-the-box tool. A good soldier. But it serves me poorly when I need grand ideas. When I need breakthrough ideas. When I need to see things from outside the box. In fact, if I let my good soldier brain stay in charge too long, I completely miss what is truly important. My good soldier brain wants to keep me "on the job". I need my second brain for real breakthrough. My lazy and intelligent brain. My commander brain. This brain looks twice, three times, four times at a problem and turns it over, meditates on it, considers it deeply. It makes revelatory connections that the good soldier brain will always miss. It's holistic. It's comfortable with gray areas. But here's the thing...it doesn't WORK on problems, it PLAYS with them. And it does it mostly subconsciously.  And it only plays when I'm not working at all.   My breakthrough ideas come ONLY from my lazy and intelligent "commander" brain, never from my rational and hardworking "good soldier" brain. Which brain are you using today? If you'd like to find out how to use your commander brain more often, get breakthrough ideas, work less and make more, and discover it all directly from Richard Koch himself, join us for Day 1 of the 80/20 Liberation Seminar September 28. And if you click below, you can find out how to participate in Day 1 at no charge with your Mastermind Club 12 membership. Get the details here.   Carpe Diem, Perry Marshall     ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

The Tragically Bastardized Product Launch

Get Jeff Walker's New Book, "Launch" and Powerful "Product Launch Formula" Bonuses Get it HERE   Mel,   If you've had an online business for any length of time, you've heard of Jeff Walker and his Product Launch Formula.   If you're new to the online world, Jeff's formula is legendary. It's a masterpiece of marketing psychology.   If executed properly, it works like a charm to produce a "Big Bang" of buzz, desire...and sales. And one big bang can be worth 10 or even 100 "little pops". Executed properly, Jeff's formula is pure 80/20.   (And I owe the success of many of my most important projects to Jeff Walker's keen insights).   But, over the years, Jeff's formula has been meekly imitated, bastardized and poorly executed so many times that it's unfairly gotten a bad rap. The formula works if executed properly. And you can discover how to execute it properly, with Jeff's new book, Launch, available here.   And if you order through this link, you'll get the book, plus... Jeff's $500,000 Seed Launch Case Study (how you can start with no list and no product) 3 Full-Length Training Videos that walk you through Jeff's entire Product Launch Formula Membership in the Launch Book Club - 3 live webcasts with Jeff, where he'll walk you through the book and go deeper into his strategies. For less than $20, it's a no-brainer.    Carpe Diem, Perry Marshall             ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Thurs @ 3pm Eastern: Death of Dumb Sales Funnels, pt 2

Mel,   Tomorrow at 3pm US Eastern, two of the heavy-hitters from my sales team will take to the webinar line to discuss the opt-in strategy I've been quietly implementing again and again for the last three years.   What if you could deliver value to EVERY customer who visits your website, even the ones who immediately leave and never ever come back?   I've been doing it. Matt Gillogly and Josh Thomas will tell you how. And how to avoid the pain and suffering I went through implementing it the first time.   Register here   Perry     ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

The Most Powerful Marketing Tool I Possess (Webinar Tuesday June 24)

The Most Powerful Tool Marketing Tool I Possess (Explained by the Man Who Built It) 80/20 Skew Curve Webinar, Tuesday June 24 REGISTER HERE   Mel,   For the past ten years, I've been using my 80/20 skew curve tool to make uncanny predictions about every business move I make, and uncanny predictions about moves my students should make. This tool multiplies your list-building capability because exponential 80/20 math applies to every list you’ve ever built. The tool applies to your USP because 1% of your uniqueness accounts for 50% of your advantages in the marketplace. The tool applies to your offers because many times just by adding one or two offers to your business, you can transform your profitability. The tool also helps you benchmark which offers are better and which are worse. If one of your offers is lame, it will tell you. Perhaps most important of all:  The tool applies to every aspect of web traffic. Google, Facebook, leads, customers, members. Impressions, clicks, actions, visitor value, Lead value. Time on site, repeat visitors, conversions, demographics, psychographics. Products, referral sources, keywords, affiliates, winning ads and losing ads. I gave this tool away to everyone who bought my 80/20 Sales & Marketing book. You can find it at 8020curve.com.   If you haven't seen it, you should. But, if it's not immediately obvious how to use it (it won't be), there is something else you should see: Free Webinar: Perry Marshall's Secret Weapon Explained (by the man who built it) Brian Woodruff, the man who built the tool, will take the 8020curve tool through it's paces on Tuesday June 24, Noon Eastern. He will show how to get real world answers using real world data (probably some from attendees - maybe even yours). Best of all, he's doing it for free, so jump on for a free ride on the 8020curve.   REGISTER HERE   Carpe Diem, Perry Marshall     ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Do You Practice this Entrepreneurial "Discipline"?

What are You For & Against? Read the Perry S. Marshall & Associates For/Against Manifesto Here   Mel,   Just a couple of weeks ago, a client came to my house for a one-on-one consultation.  He had paid for a full day of my time (not cheap). He had paid for round trip airfare. Paid for a hotel. Given up a couple days from running his busy company. He had thorny business concerns that we needed to unpack, reframe, and hopefully solve.   This was serous business   But before noon, he stopped me and said, "OK, I think we're good.  I got what I came for.  I'm going to visit some people while I'm here in town."   Um, ok...great.   After he left, I told my wife, Laura, what happened and she said, "So, what are you going to do with your afternoon off?"   I muttered, "Well, I've got a webinar tomorrow I could work on, and I guess I could bang out a few more pages in the book..."   She stopped me, "Perry, a client just told you that you gave him a full day's value in just a couple of hours. Don't go back to work. Celebrate. Take the afternoon off and do something FUN!"    She was right, of course. She's always right about stuff like that.    Most of us entrepreneurs rush from task to task, fire to fire, crises to crises, project to project.  I'm guilty too.   And when something good happens...when we finally GET what we've been working for...we land a big client or we pull off a great product launch or we hit a revenue goal or whatever...we just kinda mumble and move on to the next thing.    That must stop.    We need to practice the discipline of celebration. Yes, it's a discipline. It sounds funny to put it that way, but it is.  The proof is my example above and the fact that you were probably nodding your head when I told it.  I had to be reminded of it. We all do, it seems. We have to be reminded to have fun.    I need to be reminded even though it's part of my own company's "For/Against" manifesto, which I helped write a few years ago!   "We are FOR gratitude and celebration under every circumstance."    Why are we for celebration?  Because it's part of an abundance mentality.  A worldview that says, "If I take time to celebrate and give thanks, I'm not losing time. I'm not losing money. In fact, the very act of celebrating and giving thanks will bring me...and the world...even more blessing."   So, I did take the afternoon off, went for a walk (it was a gorgeous day), hit my favorite music store, chatted with some good friends.  In a very simple, but profound way, I celebrated.   And I returned to work the next day refreshed, peaceful, thankful, and, yes, more productive.   When is the last time you celebrated?  Are you FOR celebration?   Like me, you might need a gentle reminder. So, I'm giving it to you.  What happened this week that you should celebrate? Even if it's something small, make sure you celebrate and give thanks this weekend.  And give some thought to what you're FOR and AGAINST.     Carpe Diem, Perry Marshall                 ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Warning: This Will Freak Some People Out

Day One: Liberation Seminar Go from 60 Hours to 20 Hours Per Week September 28, Chicago Apply Here     Mel,   The alarm clock meep-meeps at you at 5:45am.  You hit the snooze once or twice, and then roll out of bed and rub the 5 or 6 hours of sleep from your eyes. Shower Dress Coffee Commute Then it's straight to the inbox, the voice messages, the texts, the snail mail, the faxes. A flurry of phone calls, minor fire fighting, and the various and inevitable crises du jour. Maybe you catch a few minutes respite at lunch, but more likely you plow right through it. Morning slides into afternoon...slides into evening. Commute home. Arriving after 7pm, sometimes as late as 10 or 11? More emails, more voice messages, more minor crises. Collapse into bed. Rinse. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat...         Distracted from distraction by distraction         Filled with fancies and empty of meaning         Tumid apathy with no concentration         Men and bits of paper whirled by the cold wind...             T.S. Eliot "The Four Quartets" Question: Do we like being hamsters on a wheel? Answer: Yes, we do. You may object. You may grumble and complain, in an attempt to prove that you do not wish for this rut of distraction from distraction by distraction.  You may even say, "There's got to be a better way."   But, deep in your mind, you love the hamster wheel. We all do. Your mind is a powerful tool.  But it adores routine.  It worships repetition. It seeks out the oh-so-soothing compulsions of "work". It justifies its obsessions with work ethic platitudes. It aches to stay stuck in the grooves it has worn into your life. Call it addiction. Call it obsession. Call it compulsion. It is hard-wired into us.  The mind, left to its own devices will seek out the hamster wheel. And happily keep you spinning, and getting nowhere, for as long as you stay in its hazy, hypnotizing spell. The symptoms... How does sitting perfectly still, with no sound or flickering images, for even 5 minutes make you feel? Can you do it? Do you feel agitated when you can't find your smart phone for 15 minutes?  When's the last time you switched it off? If I told you take a week off and not tell anyone where you are, does your mind sputter and misfire ? If I told you take a month off, does that make your hand shake? Your heart palpitate? If I told you you MUST assemble a staff that works better when you're not around, do the cold sweats start?   (I still have all those symptoms, by the way. OK, maybe not the smart phone thing, but Mr. 80/20 Sales & Marketing still fidgets when he has "nothing to do".)   And if I said that you MUST go from working 60 hours down to 20 hours a week  to achieve your dreams...would you believe me? I promise you it's true. The longer I'm on this planet the more I believe there may be few things truer in this life. If you don't get off the hamster wheel...you'll never get off the hamster wheel. Period. Your mind simply will not allow it. Unless you completely shift your paradigm. Unless you completely reframe the questions.   On September 28, Richard Koch will completely reframe the question. Shatter your paradigms. He'll show a select group of participants, how to... Go from working 60 to 20 hours per week Get away for days, weeks, even a month, and have your business work BETTER when you're NOT around Hire a small number of people and train them to do your $100, $1000 and even $10,000 per hour tasks (this can be reduced to a formula!) Operate from a state of "recreation", not crises management Go from being distracted from distraction by distraction to doing what you really want to do. You won't get there through micromanagement, you won't get there through working harder, you won't get there through tips and tricks and tactics. Those are all distractions from distraction by distraction. Hamster wheels. You must reframe the question. Apply here.    Carpe Diem, Perry Marshall   PS: Warning: This is not for everyone.  It will freak some people out. Some people simply cannot handle being "hands off", being "unavailable", being "out of the loop".     So, if being hands on, constantly available, and in the loop fills your soul with deep satisfaction, this is not for you.     ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com     Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options   Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here